Army Chief meets kin of Param Vir Chakra Captain Salaria

Army Chief General Bipin Rawat. Pic/Twitter IANS

On Friday, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat met the brother of Param Vir Chakra Captain Gurbachan Singh Salaria in Pathankot, Punjab as part of celebrating the year 2019 as 'Year of The Next of Kin'. Major General Rawat interacted with the war hero's brother, sister, nephew and his son-in-law. The Army Chief was accompanied by the GOC 9 Corps of the Indian Army.

On behalf of the Indian Army and the country, General Rawat conveyed his gratitude to the kin and close relatives of the war hero Salaria. Captain Gurbachan Singh Salaria was awarded the Param Vir Chakra posthumously for his exceptional bravery in the line of duty during his tenure with his unit Third Battalion, the First Gorkha Rifles, as a peacekeeper in the United Nations operations in Congo in 1961, reports news agency IANS.

Captain Salaria attained martyrdom on December 5, 1961, during combat with the gendarmes to remove a road blockade on route to the Elizabethville Airport. War hero Salaria was the first Indian commissioned officer and is the only United Nations peacekeeper to have been awarded India's highest military honour, the Param Vir Chakra.

With inputs from IANS

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